Social Media Addiction ‘Stealing’ Childhood, Expert Warns
By Movieguide® Contributor
As social media addiction continues to damage children’s brain chemistry, experts and lawmakers are taking steps to remedy its effects on them and their futures.
“The future addictive potential is super high when you’re on a dopamine-producing activity that is chronic,” said Melanie Hempe of Screen Strong, adding, “We’re kind of stealing their childhood.”
When kids become addicted to social media and technology, it harms their overall health, sucks the joy out of everyday life and impairs their ability to succeed in the future.
“They are not able to function in the real world. They’re not able to have social skills; they’re not making eye contact,” Hempe explained. “When we are young, we have to learn how to do that. We have to learn how to read body language and facial expressions and tone.” These things cannot be learned online.
Children are also not able to resist the addictive draw to technology in the same way that adults can because their brains are not fully developed. They lack the decision-making abilities and self-control necessary to break addictive habits.
After realizing how damaging this technology is, lawmakers have begun making strides to protect children from social media. Recently, 41 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta for making its platforms too addictive.
These lawmakers seek to protect children from this addiction by forcing social media companies to turn off their prized algorithms, which personally cater content to people to keep them on the site for as long as possible. Due to similar lawsuits, the ability to turn it off is already available in the EU.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia are suing Meta for building addictive features into its technology that harm children’s well-being.
“Our bipartisan investigation has arrived at a solemn conclusion: Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” saidCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“We have a youth mental health crisis in the United States,” added Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “The young people were brought down rabbit holes.”
To hold Meta accountable for this alleged business practice, thirty-three states are filinga joint lawsuit against the company, while eight states and Washington D.C. are filing separate complaints in federal, state or local courts.
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